Sinking the Bismarck.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13...-000-lives.html

It seems to be fashionable these days to condemn the winners on the most flimsy evidence.
Just how did this sailor know that it wasn't a new battle flag which he tthought was black ?
Was the morse message in English ? If so how many English speakers were there on Bismarck and how likely were they to be able to get to a signalling lamp to send the message.
Was Rodney really close enough to the Bismarck for this sailor to be able to see a semaphore message ?

Guys, you seem unaware of the worst part of the story: there were countless German sailors swimming in the water. A British destroyer came and pick up few lucky ones, to be shown for publicity later, and left all the other sailors behind. No other British vessel came to pick up any of the rest. It looked like the grudge for loosing battleship HMS Hood was deep.
+ + +
You would rather expect this kind of leaving hundreds of unrescued sailors behind to the savages fighting on both sides in the Pacific.

This post has been edited by Florin on May 30, 2011 06:06 am

actually there were several german submarines heading towards the area, therefore no british ship took the risk of actually stopping.